When Apple announced Aperture in October as a "all-in-one post-production tool …

Introduction

Apple has cojones. Let's not pretend otherwise. Jumping headfirst into the fully mature digital imaging market requires the shameless bravado of a one-legged man at a butt-kicking contest or any number of contestants on So You Think You Can Dance? What's at risk is not only cold, hard cash, but more importantly, their reputation as a software innovator. With Aperture, Apple is clearly hoping to have the same success it has had with Final Cut Pro. Plus, becoming a household name in imaging can't hurt the bottom line for hardware sales.

Aperture hopes to do this by edging its way into the workflows of professional digital photographers by being basically an iPhoto Pro. Leveraging Core Image, a very powerful and very fast way to use modern 3-D cards for near-realtime processing of images, and as someone that's played around extensively with the Core Image Fun House when Tiger came out, there's no denying that Core Image is fast:

Three sophisticated filters interacting with realtime feedback.
Click to animate

Apple also wants to instill the idea that Macs are for professional imaging and if you don't use one then you're missing out on all the gooey goodness and your Powerbook-toting friends should rightfully laugh at you.

But that's only half of the problem. They still have to make a program that will meet the demands of people who aren't willing to trade quality for speed. Aperture touts fidelity and nondestructive editing as its main selling points, so it's clear Apple understands the professional buzzwords but does it do enough to warrant a US$500 complement to Photoshop? Well, I'm assuming that's why you're here. Without further ado, let's see if Apple can dance.

Test hardware

Dual G5 2.0

Nvidia 6800 Ultra 256 MB

4.5 GB RAM

OS X 10.4.3

Lacie Electron Blue 22 monitor with Blue Eye calibrator

Apart from the RAM, this is pretty well the base recommended system for running Aperture. Since it uses Core Image for image processing, it requires a hefty graphics card and won't work on anything less than an ATI Radeon 9600 card. Those of you hoping to shoehorn it into a floral G3 iMac aren't going to have much luck as it won't even install if the installer detects incompatible hardware. You can check if your system is compatible with the Aperture Compatibility Checker.

Note that while I'm not a professional photographer, I work with high-end digital and scanned images as a commercial retoucher and formerly as art director for a fashion magazine. I also shoot as a hobby and often use the RAW format for maximum control over images, so I understand the needs of a professional digital photographer.